At this very moment, an “unofficial” debate is taking place at the Denver convention. Every candidate — except Bob Barr — is participating. The venue is packed with the staffs and supporters of all the other candidates, but Barr and his staff are conspicuously absent. Sources tell me that Barr admitted to one of his well-known staffers that he chose to enter the race after the state conventions for the purpose of avoiding debates.… Read more ...

Lee Wrights, campaign manager for Mary Ruwart, has announced his candidacy for LNC at-large representative. Earlier today, Mr. Wrights fell short by two votes in his LNC regional representative bid, losing to Bob Barr and Stewart Flood.

Lee Wrights served as vice chairman to the national Libertarian Party from 2004-2006.… Read more ...

Independent/Independent Party candidate Ralph Nader appeared outside the White House earlier today to call for the resignation of President Bush and Vice President Cheney. According to ABC news’s Political Radar blog:

Nader said the President has, “dishonored the White House and brought a pattern of waste.”

I’ve now heard both G.E. and Tom Knapp report that a man charged the stage last night at the “alternative debate” hosted by Jim Burns. The target of his anger seemed to be Presidential candidate George Phillies. The man was restrained and as it turns out, he had a firearm on him.… Read more ...

I just heard from someone that Bob Barr defeated Lee Wrights, of the Mary Ruwart campaign, for a seat on the Libertarian National Committee. The margin of victory was pretty close, apparently Barr won by only two votes.

There’s also talk of some friction within the core members of the Barr-Viguerie group, although it’s totally unconfirmed at this point.… Read more ...

At 8pm tonight it looks like C-SPAN is planning to air something of a preview of the Libertarian Party’s Saturday debate. This is the programming blurb from their website…

David Weigel, Associate Editor for Reason Magazine, discusses the upcoming debate between the Libertarian Party’s presidential contenders. Weigel worked on USA Today and Campaign & Elections before writing about politics for Reason.

I just heard an interesting rumor from a friend who is attending the LP convention in Denver. Apparently he reports that there is talk of the LP rehiring Shane Cory. I’ve already heard from a number of people, include Shane himself, that Stephen Gordon will remain on as the Editor of Third Party Watch.… Read more ...

I would be lying if I said that picking back up the standard of patriotic immigration reform would help Barr win the Libertarian Party nominationâ€”anymore than it would it help him become president of La Raza.